Managing groups for high performance

Introduction

The team's performance is a crucial success criteria for a project manager to manage a project and to reach its objectives, "Teamwork is a critical factor for project success and developing effective project teams is one of the primary responsibilities of the project manager." .

Nowadays it does not require much effort for a project manager to find tools and techniques about increasing a team´s performance. There is a whole industry providing workshops and guidance about team building. This article will strive to clarify the project manager’s essential role in managing teams, and it will dig further into the dynamics that makes a team function well and which will not. With that knowledge gained, the guidelines for establishing a high-performance team will be explained together with relevant tools for managing the high-performance team. This article starts by explaining the group dynamics before the establishment, in order to gain knowledge of general group developments and general issues. The focus of this article will be on project level.

Structure of this article

• In the first section: theories on group dynamics, group developments, difficulties and issues will be addressed and explained. This will be done by using models and theories as: Five Stages of Group Development, Balancing Conformity and Deviance in Groups, Level of cohesiveness and Social Loafing.

• The following section highlights the parameters a project manager should take into account when creating a high-performance team. Further in this section methods for reassuring high-performance will be outlined, these are: team building, training, reward system .

• In the last section, limitations of the tools and techniques will be discussed with a critical view of the practical usage.

Theories of group dynamics

Definition of a team

All teams are groups, but not all groups are teams. What distinguishes the two definitions is the intensity of work done together to achieve a common goal or objective, where teams work with a higher intensity together.

In this article the focus will be on teams, because project work is performed by teams and not by groups according to the Project Management Institute (PMI) standards. "The project team includes the project manager and the group of individuals who act together in performing the work of the project to achieve its objectives ... This team is comprised of individuals from different groups with specific subject matter knowledge or with a specific skill set to carry out the work of the project." . Despite the statement on teams and groups, groups are more often mentioned in this article, as theories use “group” in the terminology. It is of great importance to keep in mind that group theories also apply to teams because all teams are groups.

High-performance team

A definition of a high-performance team is: "The ultimate team experience and the one that holds both the greatest challenge as well as opportunity to improve productivity is the high-performance team. Such a team is not simply a group of people."

All team members in a high-performance team must accept a greater deal of responsibility and accountability compared to normal groups. It is not an easy task for a project manager to recruit people that want to make that commitment since most already feel that their job requires enough. Key elements the management, or the project manager, needs to communicate to the team members are:

• The importance of their skills and their work on the team.
• That they will be evaluated on their performance individually.
• That they possibly receive a reward as a team.

These key elements can work positively for the recruiting process and for maintaining a high-performance team.

Group Norms

Group norms are shared guidelines or rules for behavior created by the members themselves which most members follow. This can be guidelines for working hours, dress code, how to share information or how a certain process should be performed. The project manager should suggest the group to discuss or even to write down the guidelines in a group contract. This helps the group to create a work environment where it is known what the group expects of behavior of its members. Early commitment to clear guidelines decreases misunderstandings in the team and will increase the productivity.

Group Dynamics

Five Stages of Group Development

Despite the fact every group consists of individuals and therefore every group is different, Bruce Wayne Tuckman and Mary Ann Jensen (Tuckman, 1965; Tuckman & Jensen, 1977), have come up with a model which identify five stages which the vast majority of groups go through . Only groups or teams that have worked together previously may skip a stage. The model is named Five Stages of Group Development and is demonstrated in Figure 1 .

Figure 1: Five Stages of Group Development. Inspired from "Essentials of Contemporary Management" .

1. Forming is the first stage and here members of the group try to get an understanding of each other, align their expectations regarding behavior and clarify what to accomplish. In this stage the project managers responsibility is to ensure, that each member of the group feels important for the project and valued.
2. The storming stage is known for the appearance of disagreements and conflicts. These are mainly based on the question of who should lead the group and if some members do not meet the demands of another group member. Here the project manager needs to make sure that the conflicts does not escalades. Different dynamics are present here, and they will be followed up upon later in the article.
3. During the third stage, norming, the group members have come to a consensus about their achievements and they have created strong ties between themselves which gives them a good foundation for performing - the fourth stage.
4. The performing stage is where the group members accomplish tasks. Here the project manager is of great importance to ensure continuously motivation and effectiveness. The initial construction of the team also has an importance according to the project manager role and how actively he or she should involve in the performing stage . The performing stage is where high-performance teams differ from normal groups by the intensity and deliverables .
5. The last stage adjourning only applied to groups that are to be disbanded, such as project groups. During the adjourning stage it is time for the project manager to initiate celebration of successes and reflect upon best practices. For future purposes reflections can be captured in reports with lessons learned and pros and cons.

The role and responsibility of the project manager is in this description outlined to be of great importance. This is due to the assumption that it is the project managers role and responsibility to lead the team. In another setup the project manager could have chosen a team leader to be in charge of controlling and leading the team. What exactly the project manager should do, especially during the performing stage, will be presented in the section of tools and techniques of managing a high-performance team.

Conformity and Deviance in Groups

Figure 2: Balancing Conformity and Deviance in Groups. Inspired from "Essentials of Contemporary Management" .

Conformity is a persons behavior and actions to fit social standards and norms in groups. This happens for several reasons. One is to behave to achieve rewards and avoid punishments, another one is when a member copies another members behavior because the person like or admire the other group member. The last reason is to behave accordingly to what the group has incarnated as being the right and proper way.

Deviance happens when a member does not conform to the norms in the group which signals that the group cannot control its members’ behavior. Groups often respond to a member by three different ways. One is to convince the deviant to change his or her behavior in order to conform to the group by presenting consequence scenarios. Another way is simply to expel the member where the third way is to change the groups norms to fit the deviant’s behavior.

Balance of conformity and deviance is important to be able as a team to achieve high-performance, as Figure 2 demonstrates. Too much conformity will result in behavior, that is not critical towards the groups norms and processes. The consequence is dysfunctional norms are allowed and not corrected or replaced with better and more functional ones. The right amount of deviance will make group members reflect on the group norms and behaviors and change them when needed. On the other hand, too much deviance also results in low performance hence the group cannot control its members and therefore does not succeed to create a good working environment.

Looking back at the definition of a high-performance team this phrase "opportunity to improve productivity" captures the theory of balancing conformity and deviance quite well. A high-performance team will make sure to challenge themselves and one another to keep on top of their game.

The project managers can help guiding the team to find the right balance. There are three ways the project manager can be a help.

1. The project manager can encourage and support suggestions from a group member about changes in procedures or norms. This together with explaining that conformity should not outshine the need of change and improvements.
2. Secondly, the project manager should let the group members know, that there are always ways to improve group processes and opportunities to replace norms to get a higher performance level.
3. Third and lastly, project managers should encourage groups or teams to review their norms and processes regularly and make changes if needed.

Critical issues that prevents high-performance

Level of cohesiveness

Figure 3: Three Ways to Reduce Social Loafing. Inspired from "Essentials of Contemporary Management" .

Group cohesiveness is seen as a good thing regarding group dynamics hence it is the degree to which group members are loyal or attracted to their group. When there is too much cohesiveness the groups tend to be less effective due to non-work-related talks for example during meetings. Groups with high level of cohesiveness will also have trouble acting on the best for the organizational goals if it is at the expense of achieving group goals. Too low cohesiveness leads to too much deviance and the group is not able to complete tasks .

Factors that lead to a balanced cohesiveness and high-performance teams are divided into two segments; the characteristics for a optimal team when being formed and the other is how to lead the team during the project's lifecycle. This will be the topics of the application section.

Social loafing

Social loafing is a tendency when a individual perform less in group work than by working alone. Social loafing lowers the group performance and is wished to be eliminated. .

In Figure 3 three ways of reducing social loafing is presented. The group size is of great importance respect to social loafing. Highlighted is also the transparency of individual contributions in group work and the emphasis around them. In the next section of application these factors will be addressed through the criteria for forming an optimal team and in the reward system as a part of managing the team.

Application - Establish an optimal team

From the previous section the identified key factors that determines success or failure are group size, roles, development, leadership, norms and cohesiveness. What can a project manager do? In this section it is assumed that the PM can chose the most optimal team based on the theories. The limitations to actual cases will be explained in the next section. When a PM stands across the job of putting a team together many factors are to be considered. Some of which the PM can aim for and also a technique based on interpersonal skills.

Group size and its diversity

Size

There are several advantages in keeping the size of the teams relatively small somewhere between two and nine members due to the following examples:

• The group members interact more with each other and coordination of dividing efforts gets easier.
• Members of smaller groups feel more committed, motivated and satisfied.
• It is easier to share information and communicate.
• It gets easier, especially for the project manager, to see and acknowledge individual contributions..

A team too small is also not the ideal solution, because if the team is too small it has fewer resources to drag from, and it can be on the expense of skills, knowledge and experience. One of the issues that a good group size prevents to a certain degree is social loafing. It gets harder for the individual member to "hide" and not deliver if he or she is deviant to the group norms..

Diversity

Diversity is a key word when forming a team. The diversity can both be measured in expertise, experience, knowledge and skills or as a composition of members from different divisions e.g. marketing, production, engineering and finance. The strength is avoidance of groupthinking. Groupthink is when the team faulty strive for reaching an agreement at the expense of a more correct appraisal which is more likely to happen when there is a lack of diversity . A balanced diversity in groups has many good side effects! The chance of getting a more balanced cohesiveness is higher when the team members do not have the same background or the same colleagues. The same applies to have a moderate level of deviance in the group to keep challenging the norms without it getting out of hand. This is easier for a group with less with in common.

Communication is key to good team work (REF), and both the team size has a say in this together with the dynamics of the diversity. A tool to strengthen the communication skills in a team is to make use of Belbin Team Role test. This tool deeper into interpersonal skills which provide a better foundation for good communication as stated on the official Belbin website: "Belbin can provide the language to ensure that individuals and teams communicate and work together with greater understanding."

Manage a high-performance team

Training

Rewrite: Training

Training includes all activities designed to enhance the competencies of the project team members. Training can be formal or informal. Examples of training methods include classroom, online, computer-based, on-the-job training from another project team member, mentoring, and coaching. If project team members lack the necessary management or technical skills, such skills can be developed as part of the project work. Scheduled training takes place as stated in the human resource management plan. Unplanned training takes place as a result of observation, conversation, and project performance appraisals conducted during the controlling process of managing the project team. Training costs could be included in the project budget, or supported by performing organization if the added skills may be useful for future projects. It could be performed by in-house or external trainers.

Teambuilding

Rewrite: Team-building activities can vary from a 5-minute agenda item in a status review meeting to an off-site, professionally facilitated experience designed to improve interpersonal relationships. The objective of team-building activities is to help individual team members work together effectively. Team-building strategies are particularly valuable when team members operate from remote locations without the benefit of face-to-face contact. Informal communication and activities can help in building trust and establishing good working relationships.

As an ongoing process, team building is crucial to project success. While team building is essential during the initial stages of a project, it is a never-ending process. Changes in a project environment are inevitable, and to manage them effectively, a continued or a renewed team-building effort should be applied. The project manager should continually monitor team functionality and performance to determine if any actions are needed to prevent or correct various team problems.

Appraisals/ reward system

To prevent social loafing there is different methods to be used by the project manager.

Rewrite: Recognition and Rewards

Part of the team development process involves recognizing and rewarding desirable behavior. The original plans concerning ways in which to reward people are developed during the Plan Human Resource Management process. It is important to recognize that a particular reward given to any individual will be effective only if it satisfies a need which is valued by that individual. Award decisions are made, formally or informally, during the process of managing the project team through project performance appraisals (Section 9.4.2.2). Cultural differences should be considered when determining recognition and rewards.

People are motivated if they feel they are valued in the organization and this value is demonstrated by the rewards given to them. Generally, money is viewed as a tangible aspect of any reward system, but intangible rewards could be equally or even more effective. Most project team members are motivated by an opportunity to grow, accomplish, and apply their professional skills to meet new challenges. A good strategy for project managers is to give the team recognition throughout the life cycle of the project rather than waiting until the project is completed.

Limitations

Project managers may not put his or her team together, which the PMI standard also addresses. Reasons varies from collective bargaining agreements, internal or external relationships, use of subcontractors, matrix project environment or another reason by many others. Constraints are of many including economic factors, too low competencies or already assigned resources to other projects within a company. Failure to acquire the necessary team members for the project can affect budgets, customer satisfaction, project schedules,the quality, and risks. Insufficient teams or capabilities can decrease the probability of success and or could in worst case scenario, result in cancelled project.

These limitations should be considered and planned in the start-up face of the project. If there is any unavailability of required skills or competencies, the project manager has to reflect on the impact in the project budget, schedule, quality, risks, training plans, and other project management plans. .

Belbin suggests to put together a team based on their behavioral strengths and weaknesses in the workplace ". This can be a big challenge both to match team roles, needed skills for the project together with the available resources. Another issue with putting together a team based on Belbin's Team Roles is the question if that is the optimal solution for high-performance teams. A research has been made upon this question "Belbin role diversity and team performance: is there a relationship?" . This research showed that no relationship was found between team role diversity and team performance. Therefore it is only suggested in this article to use the Belbin's Team Roles for improving communication skills.

The theory of composing a team with great diversity is the optimal solution. The limitations for the project manager lies in the issue of finding the right people for exactly that project within the company who has the time to join a project group. In the cases where it is not possible to collect a team the project manager needs to hire new employees dedicated to a specific project or to project work in general. Other examples of putting together the right team is when the management choose to hire a consultant team to do the project. This is often done when it is known, that the time issue is too big of a obstacle, the expenses of hiring new employees are too big or that the expertise for the given project is not to be found in-house. If a team is established from different departments within a company, silo thinking can be a limitation for a project manager to reach high motivation from all team members if the project only gets a recognition in a certain department. Here a reward system should be applied REF

How do you know the needs

People develops, take that into account Though that is rarely possible in an organization, just to due to the

The limitations for the project manager

Annotated bibliography

• Essentials of Contemporary Management, Sixth Edition - Chapter 11

The chapter, Effective Team Management, explains how different elements of group dynamics influence the functioning and effectiveness of groups and teams. E.g. to have a balance of conformity and deviance and a moderate level of cohesiveness, why and how to reduce social loafing in groups.

• A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Fifth Edition - Chapter 9

The chapter, Project Human Resource Management, gives guidelines and background knowledge regarding group developments e.g. the Five Stages of Group Development. The chapter also explains the management of a project team with training, team-building and recognition and reward systems. Limitations when acquiring the right resources in a team is also presented in this chapter. Other chapters have also been used for a few definitions regarding project and project work, especially chapter 2.3 Project Team.

• Richardson, Peter, and D. Keith Denton, “How to Create a High-Performance Team”, Quarterly 16.3 (2005)

This article defines high-performance teams and the importance of team member selection, development, training and communication are all considered and discussed.

Reading suggestions to related wiki articles

• Project Team Roles and Responsibilities, Spring 2018 [1]

• Belbin Team Roles, Spring 2018 [2]

• How to successfully go through the Five Stages of Team Development, Fall 2016 [3]

• Group Dynamics and Personality Types, Fall 2014 [4]

• Designing Project Teams, Fall 2014 [5]